Why Izy not playing? The big question over Jose Izquierdo

Jose Izquierdo has sat on the Brighton bench six times this season since the end of January and six times he has remained an unused substitute. Is there some sort of conspiracy at hand which is preventing Graham Potter from playing him?

Some Albion fans believe that is very much the case. We are not talking a conspiracy quite on the level of the moon landings being faked or a Paul McCartney look-a-like having played Paul McCartney since 1966 after the real Paul McCartney died in a car crash, but there are still Seagulls supporters who think all is not right with the Colombian.

Between April 2019 and October 2020, Izquierdo had not set foot on a football pitch in any type of match situation. A combination of poor management of a knee problem and a relentless run of bad luck has seen him undergo three surgeries that we know about since first getting injured at the 2018 World Cup with Columbia.

The trouble began with Izquierdo’s meniscus, an area of cartilage in the knee which cushions where the thigh bone meets the shin bone. Because the meniscus is at such an important connection of the body, a problem with it can impact on all the muscles in the lower leg, the upper leg and the back.

It was a meniscus injury which plagued Micah Richards throughout his career. Richards had become the youngest defender to ever play for England at 18 but a year later, he damaged his meniscus and was never quite the same.

Richards played the final competitive game of his career at the age of 27 and retired at the age of 30 having not played for 32 months. In those final two-and-a-half years of his career, anytime Richards got close to playing at competitive match intensity his knee swelled up.

That in turn led to back and hamstring problems and eventually he said enough was enough. Richards can now be found in one of the most unlikely television double acts, melting Roy Keane’s ice-cold persona whenever the duo are on punditry together.

When you read about Richards’ problems, it becomes clear that Jose Izquierdo has done pretty well to get close to a comeback. We sadly thought his goose was cooked when it was revealed that he would not play a part in the restarted Premier League season last June, despite Potter spending most of the 2019-20 season saying that he was not far away from a first team return.

There was genuine happiness all round when Izquierdo suddenly popped up for the Under 23s against West Ham United in October. He played only 29 minutes of the Premier League 2 clash against the Hammers but still managed to make it the dream resurrection, scoring the winner in a 3-2 victory.

Izquierdo started four more matches for the Under 23s up until the end of November, playing one half of football every time and chipping in with an assist against Blackburn Rovers. His last outing came on November 30th, 45 minutes in a 1-0 win away at Southampton.

That was the last time Izquierdo took part in an actual game of football. Whilst he has sat on the first team bench a lot recently, he has been given no match time with the development squad to get minutes under his belt and build him up for Premier League football.

This strikes a lot of people has strange. If he is fit and injury free, surely he could do with shaking some ring rust? And if he isn’t fit and injury free and that is why hasn’t featured for the Under 23s, then what is he doing on the first team bench?

Potter has used the move to nine substitutes as a means for giving players he has no intention of using first team experience. The most notable example of that came when Brighton won 1-0 at Liverpool and named two goalkeepers on the bench, Tom McGill going along for the ride next to Christian Walton.

Jose Izquierdo does not need first team experience. His space on the bench could be better used by the likes of McGill, Jenson Weir or Evan Ferguson who is already scoring goals in Premier League 2 despite being only 16-years-old.

Potter therfore must have Izquierdo on the bench with the intention of using him in the right situation. The question then – and this is where the conspiracy theories start – is why hasn’t Izquierdo featured so far?

If Potter wants to introduce Izquierdo when there is little left to play for, then Newcastle at home when Brighton led comfortably was the perfect opportunity.

Or maybe he feels Izquierdo is best suited to come on when the Albion are behind and looking to get back into a game. Hello, Manchester United away.

Perhaps Potter thinks the moment to release him from the bench is a tight 0-0 when Izquierdo’s speed (if he still has it), directness and unpredictability could make a breakthrough.

You would be hard pressed to find more perfect conditions than Everton at home, when Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Big Dan Burn came on for the final four minutes.

Izquierdo has remained on the bench for pretty much every possible situation there could be, other than a heavy defeat. That he still has not played is making people wonder whether there is more to it than meets the eye.

So, what of these conspiracy theories? The favourite is that Izquierdo is close to passing an appearance landmark that triggers either a payment to Club Brugge as part of the deal which brought him to the Amex in 2017 or a new contract.

Jose Izquierdo has played 47 Premier League games for the Albion, so if Brighton owe Club a performance-related bonus when he passes 50 league games then that could explain why Izquierdo is being held back.

He also happens to be out of contract come the end of June. If 50 Premier League appearances results in an automatic extension, Brighton may be playing carefully as they weigh up whether an individual who has not played competitively for two years is worth a new deal.

But again, if either of those were true Brighton would be better off not naming him in their matchday squad at all. The conspiracy theorists respond with they are doing so to convince others he is fit to increase his chances of picking up a new club next season.

If Izquierdo can point to the fact he made the matchday squad of a Premier League side regularly from January through to May, he looks like a commodity worth taking a risk on rather than someone who sat in the stands all season.

Rather wonderfully, the same theory is now being applied to Jahanbakhsh getting five minutes every week in matches when his introduction appears as pointless as a pair of sunglasses on a bloke with one ear. More appearances = more interest if Brighton try and flog him this summer.

Whether or not you believe any of these theories, think the moon landings were faked or reckon the FBI killed JFK, it still remains strange that Izquierdo has not played a minute of Under 23 football since November and yet has made the first team bench six times but never been used.

What is going on with Jose Izquierdo? And what happened to the real Paul McCartney?